Chow Maine's Baby

Chow Maine’s Baby

Recently Chow Maine was in heat and when she is in heat she is the most loving cat you ever want to be around.  She wants to be on your lap, she wants to be petted, and she wants to be where you are.  Normally she doesn’t like to be held or touched or petted.  In general if you walk by her, she sticks her paw out and swats whatever part of your body she can reach while digging in her claws.

Chow Maine has a lot of toys; catnip filled mice, feather clad birds, plastic balls with little bells, etc.  Her favorite toy, which my husband calls, “her little bacteria trap” is a black stuffed “thing” — I refer to it as a “thing” because I’m not really sure what it used to be — with a pink feather boa around it’s neck.  This is the only toy that Chow Maine will play fetch with as if she were a dog.  We can throw it and she will bring it back and drop it at our feet waiting for us to throw it again.  I’ve always believed she thinks she is a dog.

Sometimes when she is playing with it, she throws it up in the air and then grabs it with her paws only to tackle it to the floor and beat it to death with her hind feet.  It is kind of comical to me, but then I think maybe she is disciplining it, as if to say “bad kitty baby!”

We have to close her out of the bedroom at night otherwise she runs laps around the bed head board and across the bed until someone pays attention to her.  The other night we were awakened by the loudest meow crying we have ever heard.  We opened the door and she was sitting there with her baby on the floor in front of her as if it were dead.  She looked at us and then immediately picked it up and ran into the bedroom under the bed.  She is one crazy cat.

She carries the baby around in her mouth while meowing loudly.  I wonder and think this must be difficult for a cat.  She paces with it for long periods of time and then will suddenly appear in the living room or wherever we are without the baby in her mouth.  If we ask her where her baby is, sometimes she goes and gets it and other times she does not. 

Today I followed her because I wanted to find out what she does with that baby.  After several laps around the house and a stop at Bear’s kennel for some good old fashion dog smell she finally quieted down and ended up on her favorite blanket on the couch where she will sleep most of the day with her baby.

As I brood over this story of Chow Maine and her baby it reminds me of how God is with us.  He carries us around, He leaves us to try to make it alone, and He gives us discipline and lets us go through our struggles that we have brought on ourselves.  When we finally stop to rest, He is always there with His arms around us.  We are never alone no matter how much we think we might be.  He gives us just what we need; be it discipline, be it a struggle, or be it a hug.  God knows just what we need and when we need it.

© Crackerberries 2011